BEN HARPER, PEPPER, THE BRAVERY, SLIGHTLY STOOPID ROCK WEST BEACH MUSIC FESTIVAL

One of the only music festivals in The U.S. that takes place on the beach, The West Beach Music Festival continues to build on it’s past success

The West Beach Music and Arts Festival held their their annual event on the beautiful beach in Santa Barbara, Ca. September 18th-20th with peformances from Ben Harper and Relentless 7, G Love & Special Sauce, Ozomatli, Pepper, The Bravery, Slightly Stoopid, Shwayze and The Aggrolites to name a few. After drawing 1,500 fans for the first year and building their audience to 20,000 in year two, it’s clear event producers Twiin Productions has discovered a successful formula as one of the only festivals in America to take place on the sand.

Artisan News caught up with Sam Endicott of The Bravery to get his thoughts on performing at West Beach Music Festival and why Santa Barbara is a home away from the bands home in New York.

“When they asked us to play we were like ‘Are you sure you want us to play, because we’re not a reggae band?’ But it was really cool and we didn’t know what to expect and the crowd was great. It was a really good time. We like Santa Barbara a lot because our keyboardist grew up here so we come here to rehearse or when we have time off and so it’s like a home away from home.”rn

We also caught up with Hawaii’s Pepper to get their thoughts on getting to performing at The West Beach Music Festival in Santa Barbara, California which is one of the only festivals to take place on the sand in America.

“Well we just played one on the sand in Portugal and it was awesome. Awesome! It was so killer and to do it again is going to be perfecto, as they say in Portugal. Oh they say that in Portugal? They don’t actually say that. We heard a lot of ‘Perfecto!’ Perfecto Pepper!'”

Located seaside just west of Santa Barbara’s renowned Stearn’s Wharf, the all-ages festival also featured arts and crafts vendors, activities oriented toward children plus The Oasis which is a lush tropical inspired-area surrounded by palm trees located in the heart of the festival on the beach. Just a few of the other bands who performed at West Beach in 2009 wer Donovan Frankenreiter, Steel Pulse, Iration, Rebelution, Soja, Still Time, Tomorrow’s Bad Seeds and Bassnectar.

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